1, Journey to Home (3)

Rencho went to the east along the shore and came to the place of executionof Tatsunokuchi (the mouth of the dragon).

He could see Enoshima Island. Now, high-rise buildings line up and are full of a surfer and tourists, but there was the place of execution place there in those days. Even now, human bones that are supposed to have been executed are found near here.

People were gathering here.

A sinner was brought to Tatsunokuchi..

There was a hole in the center of the sandy beach for cutting off the neck.

The official tells a crime sentence.

"This sinner committed a theft in Kamakura, in addition murdered a person. The crime is not light. Although each place is famine, and food is scarce, this is behavior unworthy of the resident of the capital. Therefore, we behead him.”

The officer of beheading drew a sword bluntly.

The sinner who had been quiet until now has acted violently as soon as blindfolded. "No, please help me, I do not want to die." The officials surround sinner, suppressed him, and push his neck into the hole. The sinner shook head. The officer chanted "Namu-Amida-Butsu", cutting off the sinner's neck with a single blow. The scream of the crowd broke out.

Rencho stayed overnight at a temple of his acquaintance and walked the downtown of Kamakura again.

He visited the temple belonging to the Zen sect.

More than a dozen samurais are sitting with crossed legs for meditation (note).

The Zen Buddhism was popular among samurais explosively mainly in those days.

A Buddhist priest walks around the room with a warning stick calmly.

The priest hits the right shoulder of the samurai who was about to sleep with a warning stick.

The samurai blushed unintentionally, and he joined his hands and inclined the neck to the left and opened the right shoulder. A Buddhist priest strongly hit the right shoulder with a warning stick this time. After the samurai was beat with a warning stick, he joined his hands, and had lowered the head, and he raised his head and stretched out the back and came back to the original posture.

Rencho watched it through the window.

Rencho felt the force that Zen Buddhism spread out among Kamakura samurais in this way on his skin.

Renchō passes Wakamiya main street. It is a gentle uphill slope.

There was Tsuruoka Hachiman Shrine in the distance.

Yoriyoshi Minamotono of the leader of the second generation of Kawachi Genji erected the Hachiman Shinto shrine. Yoriyoshi invited a divided god from Iwashimizu Hachiman shrine of Kyoto to the Yui volost of Kamakura and built a Shinto shrine and assumed it a tutelary deity of Genji.

Since his descendant Yoritomo subjugated the Kantō Region, Hachiman became the god of all the samurai. Therefore, anyone of the samurai according to Genji worshiped Hachiman.

"Travel to East", a travelogue of the same era as "Records of Sea and Road", briefly describes the origins of Hachiman Shrine.

“In the first place the origin of this Kamakura is that a person said to be late Yoritomo of the right side shogunate was born in the house of the samurai as a descendant for the ninth generation of the Emperor Seiwa. Because Yoritomo won to a rebel against the Imperial government with a soldier of the loyalty in the days of an end of the Jisho era, a reward from the Imperial Court was given frequently, and he was appointed a general. Because Yoritomo established the Shogunate on this land and built a temple and a Shinto shrine in this place, it became the land which is prosperous like now. Especially in the Hachiman shrine of Tsuruoka, green of pine and oak grows steadily, and there is no time when the offerings to god will end.The concert of the four seasons is held after the musical instrument performers are determined, and in August a festival is held to release living things by the appointed official. The ceremony worshiping God is said not to be different to Iwashimizu Hachiman shrine of the main."

The gentle straight road continues from Hachiman shrine to the sea.

The group mounting a horse come down quietly from Hachiman Shrine on this road.

The person who is riding a horse is Tokiyori Hojou and is Tokisuke of the eldest son and Tokimune of the second son. A vassals follows after them.

Tokiyori is the regent of the Kamakura shogunate. He was only 27 years old.

The regent was lower-ranking than a general of Kamakura apparently. However, the general after Yoritomo became a puppet, and Hojo having the armaments had held power. Therefore, it might be said that Tokiyori of the regent was the real ruler of Japan.

Father and children proceed leisurely through Wakamiya Main Street.

The roadside crowd avoid the road and lowered heads.

"That person is Dear Ms. Saimyoji."

Tokimune became a priest at the Saimyoji of the Zen temple. People called him Saimyoji.

Seven years old Tokisuke approaches his father's horse. He shows an expressions that he grieves over the world in spite of being a boy.

"Dad, is it true that you will quit your regent?"

Tokimune replies.

" I do not intend to yet leave it. But I managed the Shogunate, and a decade already passed. That might be the right time soon.”

Tokimune of the younger brother approached following an older brother. Tokimune was only 5 years old. The expression of Tokimune was naivete unlike Tokisuke.

"Dad, now it is not time to retire. There are many people who criticize Hojo yet. The Shogunate is safe if father is there."

His elder brother Tokisuke explicitly had a bad face on him.

These brothers are born of different mothers. And it may be the nature of the lineage of Tokiyori. They bared emulousness in everything.

The holiest how to sit down in Buddhism. Riding in combination both legs on both thighs.This how had been used in the sitting image of Buddha. It was performed as how to sit down at the time of the posture of contemplation.